I've finally started using my GitHub account. I've had it since almost a year ago, but only recently decided to dive into the Git commands in bash. The learning curve is definitely manageable, if you're not afraid to google. This sudden shift from SVN is mostly invoked by jQuery's move. A good amount of the source code I 'clone' for my own use (I'm not a fan of browsing for download links) is on GitHub, too. As awesome as TortoiseSVN is, GitHub just seems to have so much potential, at least over Google Code. 

I've also started venturing into MVC web frameworks again, mostly in PHP, since it's mostly what I know server-side. I'm going to redo the back-end for my site, so I can extend it with more flexibility and creativity. This will definitely be a long-term project, with a lot of long pauses and short spurts of activity. But it just plain sucks that I can't easily build new portions of my site without affecting or changing the old, because Indexhibit or WordPress are simply not designed to be highly extensible, from a development standpoint. They're also not really getting improved upon very quickly, at least in the rate their language platform (PHP) is -- which actually isn't that quickly. And as a side note, looking at the BuddyPress source--which sits on top of WordPressMU, induces powerful headaches. So I've just abandoned what most of the internet runs on; what do I want? 

More specifically, a good framework, in my opinion, simplifies basic and routine routing logic, database logic, validation logic, state logic, and view logic, all the while having an established and simple entry points for the developer's own code. But to be honest, I don't necessarily mind extending NDXZ or WP, but it's just that it gets old after a while, and the excitement of a challenge gives away to tedium in the face of very little time. All this is making me want to switch to Django or Rails and sacrifice a bit of time to learn their respective languages. That's a bit extreme, since there's nothing really missing from PHP. 

I'm still going to improve and maintain my NDXZ, WP, and Vanilla extensions, and will be putting more into GitHub. But for myself and my own projects, it's time for some change.

Lastly, I've been introduced to the Microsoft ASP.NET stack recently. The conversion from XAMPP hasn't been too horrible, since I've been fed with OO my entire programming life. Plus, integration of the stack seems quite good: IDE, source control, reporting, database, and programming language all fit nicely. Microsoft's products are beginning to get to me, or at least they're definitely not as bad as people make them out to be. They just need better UI people, at least for the web. I'm personally a huge fan of the old-school, beveled warm-gray window chrome.